Shorts, 11/27.

There'll be no rest for the hunters and gatherers of film news. For one thing, Ray Pride's found an amazing story by Chris Garcia in the Austin American-Statesman about Melton Barker, an "itinerant filmmaker" gone missing, and Caroline Frick, an archivist and historian all but obsessed with finding out more about him.

Newsweek's Devin Gordon has seen Peter Jackson's King Kong and finds it "a surprisingly tender, even heartbreaking, film... Jackson has honored his favorite film in the best possible way: by recapturing its heart-pounding, escapist glee."

Linkage between the movies and the burning cars surrounding Paris have centered on Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine, but Geraldine Baum talks with Bibi Naceri about another relevant film he's co-written with Luc Besson. Banlieue 13, a dystopian Escape From New York-like actioner set in and around the Paris of 2010 has received upbeat reviews at Twitch (Todd and Matthew) and, stateside, will be heading straight to DVD. "The walls in my movie aren't there," Naceri tells Baum, "but there is so much violence and distrust that traps the innocent along with the criminals, it's as if the walls really exist."

Also in the Los Angeles Times:

• "'It's amazing what a broad will do for a buck,' was friend Frank Sinatra's comment on the spiritual workshops [Shirley] MacLaine held in the mid-80s after the publication of Out on a Limb and Dancing in the Light," writes Mary McNamara. "But compared with Sinatra in his alcoholic, temper-plagued later years, MacLaine, at 71, is practically midcareer, with three movies out this year, including the upcoming Rumor Has It."

• "In its 50-year heyday, the Brown Derby was where Hollywood hung its hat." Cecilia Rasmussen relates the lore and laments the last remaining restaurant's demise.

• Robert W Welkos: "Yes, as implausible as it might seem, Rocky Balboa is back for Round 6."

Ian Whitney introduces a new symposium: "As the writers of The Dual Lens look at the movies that they feel define America, we are also looking at the movies that define ourselves." So far: Whitney on The Parallax View ("Alan Pakula's 1974 conspiracy thriller defines the America of the early 1970s") and Davin Lagerroos on the battle of the coasts in Annie Hall.

Speaking of whom - no, that's not fair; she's much, much more - Michael Sragow talks with Diane Keaton for the Baltimore Sun. Via Movie City News.

"All the world loves to see the experts and the establishment made a fool of." It's a quote from Welles's F for Fake and from Pat H Broeske's piece on the man who spoke it, Clifford Irving. In the early 70s, Irving convinced McGraw-Hill and Life magazine that he'd transcribed Howard Hughes's autobiography, forcing the recluse to deny it via a televised phone call from the Bahamas. Now Lasse Hallström's made The Hoax with Richard Gere as Irving - who claims the film is "a hoax about a hoax."

Also in the New York Times:

• Steve Chagollan, anticipating The New World: "Hollywood loves a romance, and its problem with Pocahontas, historically speaking, is that she and Smith were very likely never more than cordial allies."

• Jori Finkel profiles Lynn Hershman Leeson: "[A]rt historians have begun to credit her as a pioneer. But until recently the technology has been recalcitrant. And so has the art world."

• Perla Ciuk, briefly, on the International Film Festival of Morelia: "Political themes were popular at the festival, perhaps unsurprisingly, given that Zapatista rebels in Chiapas and Guerrero have trained indigenous people in the use of cameras, computer editing and satellite Internet."

• "You're born and you die, and between those two events, it's a really difficult and hard journey. That's life. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know," says Mike Leigh to Deborah Solomon.

• Strawberry Saroyan: "[F]ormer child actors now routinely populate the screen and have occasionally emerged as masters of their craft."

• Dave Itzkoff on the mysterious return of Dave Chappelle.

Photographer Kevin Cummins shoots celebs but also, and far more interestingly, their fans. Following his own story are testimonials from seven look-alikes (or maybe just look-alike wannabes).

Also in the Observer:

Who's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for, wonders Cristina Odone. Bible-thumpers "detest [CS Lewis] as an effete Oxford don with a malevolent influence on young innocents" while "liberal parents well-versed in Philip Pullman, and wary of proselytising creationists, will recoil from an attempt at Sunday school cinema."
• Paul Harris: "Unseating old-time liberal 'actor-vists' such as Warren Beatty, Tim Robbins and director Rob Reiner, [George] Clooney has now emerged as the leading political voice in Hollywood, winning plaudits from liberals and stinging attacks from conservatives."

• By hosting the Australian Film Institute Awards on two consecutive nights, Russell Crowe "saved the event," writes Mary Colbert. "Before the gala, Crowe revealed that he and his friend and fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman, who have never collaborated on screen, have been signed to star in Baz Luhrmann's next movie - a romance based on Gone With the Wind to be shot in 2006."

• Paula Shields reviews the production of Neil LaBute's Wrecks at the Everyman Palace Theatre in Cork, featuring Ed Harris.

• Chrissy Iley profiles Jamie Bell.

• Benji Wilson: "British TV drama is beginning to puff out its chest after several years of reality show-enforced purdah."

• Books: Dan Glaister has a fun talk with Set Up, Joke, Set Up, Joke author Rob Long and Ranjit Bolt reviews Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within.

• Alice O'Keeffe: "Several US production companies are battling to be the first to make a film about the reggae/salsa hybrid known as reggaeton."

Mike Russell's "Not-so-secret history of Aeon Flux" is a nifty feature in the Boston Globe. Check out a few extra drawings at Mike's blog.

Jörg Tszman profiles Fatih Akin for Deutsche Welle.

Juan Diego Solanas's Nordeste has picked up top honors at the Stockholm International Film Festival. The BBC reports.

Online viewing tip. Koulamata's The French Democracy, via Clive Thompson by way of Fimoculous.

Posted by dwhudson at November 27, 2005 11:36 AM